Home Games Terms & Conditions

POKERSTARS HOME GAMES - TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE

These terms and conditions of use (the "Agreement") set out the terms upon which you may use PokerStars’ online poker service called Home Games (“Home Games”) and should be read by you in their entirety prior to your use of Home Games. Please note that the Agreement constitutes a legally binding agreement between you and Rational Entertainment Enterprises Limited (referred to herein as "PokerStars", "us" or "we"). We own and operate the Internet site found at www.pokerstars.com (the "Site") where Home Games is made available. In addition to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, please review our End User License Agreement, Privacy Policy, the Poker Rules, the Real Money Processing and Currency Exchange terms and conditions and the Stars Rewards terms and conditions as well as the other rules, policies and terms and conditions relating to the games and promotions available on the Site as posted on the Site from time to time, which are incorporated herein by reference, together with such other policies of which you may be notified of by us from time to time. If you have entered into an affiliate agreement with PokerStars or one of our group companies pursuant to which you market and promote the Site to users of your website (“Affiliate Agreement”), that Affiliate Agreement is also incorporated herein by reference.

Please note that Home Games is designed to replicate the poker experience you would have with your friends at home. You are therefore likely to be playing a poker game with people you know, some or all of whom may be playing from the same physical location. As PokerStars is not able to verify the legality of Home Games in each jurisdiction, it is your responsibility to ensure that it is legal for you to play Home Games before you do so.

Be aware that PokerStars shall not bear any responsibility nor shall it incur any liability in connection with the conduct of any Home Games user violating the terms and conditions of this Agreement or any other policy or rule specified by PokerStars in connection with Home Games.

In consideration of PokerStars allowing you to use Home Games, by clicking the "I Agree" button as part of the software installation process and using Home Games, you consent to the terms and conditions set forth in this Agreement, including without limitation the disclaimer of liability set forth above, the End User License Agreement, the Privacy Policy, Poker Rules, the Real Money Processing and Currency Exchange terms and conditions and the Stars Rewards terms and conditions from time to time in accordance with the provisions below and therein.

PokerStars Home Games provides you with the opportunity to invite your friends and close community members to play home games regardless of where they are in the world. The essence of Home Games means that you can choose to compete in ring games and tournaments, across a huge variety of poker variants allowing you to experience the convenience, competition and fun in playing online home games with people you know. Your use of Home Games should contribute to and be consistent with the essence of Home Games. Player data, rankings, club statistics and many other game results (“Data Tools”) are provided via Home Games, all with the sole aim of furthering your social and competitive experience amongst your friends or close community members. None of the Data Tools nor any information deriving from such Data Tools may be used or provided to any Club Manager, Member or other third party for any financial benefit. PokerStars reserves the right, in case it finds or suspects any abuse of the essence of Home Games or that any Data Tool, or information derived from any Data Tool, is being used by you or has been used by you for any financial benefit, to suspend your use of Home Games and/or to close the related Club at any time, in its sole discretion.

1. DEFINITIONS AND INTERPRETATION

The following words and phrases used in this Agreement shall have the following meanings (unless the context clearly requires otherwise):

“Administrator” means a Club Manager or a Member who has been granted the ability to arrange and cancel HG Games, configure the parameters of HG Games, schedule the start times of HG Games, and otherwise act in an administrative capacity in relation to HG Games;

“Club” means a poker club established by a User using Home Games;

“Club Manager” means a User who establishes a Club;

“HG Game” means a game of online poker using Home Games;

“HG Tournament” means an HG Game which is a tournament; and

“Member” means a User who is a member of a Club but is not the Club Manager.

the software developed by PokerStars in relation to Home Games forms part of the Software;

the word and logo marks for “HOME GAMES” are Trade Marks; and

any login details connected with Home Games including account numbers, Club and User Ids, Club invitation codes and Home Games passwords are Login Credentials.

A phrase introduced by the term “including”, “includes”, “include” or “for example” means “including without limitation” and shall not limit the sense of the words preceding that term.

Words importing the singular include the plural and vice versa, and words importing a gender shall include all genders.

A reference to a “Clause” is a reference to a clause of this Agreement.

2. AUTHORITY

PokerStars retains authority over the:

opening, maintaining and closing of Clubs;

granting, maintaining or removing of Club Manager status;

granting, maintaining or removing of Member status; and

granting, maintaining or removing of Administrator status.

The decision of PokerStars' management with regards to any aspect of a Club, or your use of Home Games (including your Club and membership status) is final, and shall not be open to review or appeal.

3. RESPONSIBILITIES OF CLUB MANAGER

If you are a Club Manager you must read and comply with all explanations, instructions and guidelines concerning Home Games provided on the Site from time to time.

Club Managers are ambassadors for PokerStars and must project the best image for PokerStars and Home Games, both to Members and to the general public. You must not act in any manner which in our opinion brings or is likely to bring PokerStars or any of its group companies into disrepute or is materially adverse to the interests of PokerStars or any of its group companies.

In addition, if you are a Club Manager you agree that you will:

operate the Club responsibly and in good faith;

without limiting your obligations under the End User License Agreement, protect your User account and access to Club management features from unauthorized use (we strongly recommend employing our RSA security token);

provide front line support to Members for help on Club-related issues (excluding disputes between Members), and use all reasonable endeavors to resolve such issues (with the assistance of PokerStars’ support team where necessary);

be the first point of contact for all disputes between Members relating to your Club and use all reasonable endeavors to resolve such disputes without recourse to PokerStars;

use the Member blocking tool judiciously and only block Members after you have given due consideration for the well-being of the Club;

for each Club of which you are Club Manager nominate one of its Members to be your successor in the event that you leave the Club or otherwise become unable to perform your responsibilities as Club Manager;

immediately advise us of any known or suspected fraud, chip-dumping, collusion, money laundering or other behavior which is illegal or is prohibited by us (as specified in this Agreement, the End User License Agreement, or otherwise on or via the Site) of which you become aware in relation to your Club; and

comply with all reasonable directions given to you by PokerStars in relation to your Club’s, your and (to the extent that it is under your control) your Members’ use of Home Games.

On establishing a Club, the Club Manager must choose a Club name and logo. Once approved, the Club name may not be changed unless it is subsequently determined that the name is not compliant with Clause 3.5.

In addition to Clause 3.4 the Club Manager must not choose a Club name, logo or image which:

infringes the intellectual property or other rights of PokerStars or any third party or violates any law;

incorporates a URL of any kind;

incorporates another User’s ID (in a derogatory manner);

incorporates the name of a poker professional or any other celebrity (unless it is also your own name or such person is the Club Manager or a Member of your Club);

includes any special characters; or

contains the name or promotes the services of a competitor of PokerStars.

Without derogating from Clauses 3.4 and 3.5 above, all Club names and logos are subject to review and approval by PokerStars. PokerStars reserves the right in its discretion to reject any Club name, logo or image at any time without needing to specify the reasons for the rejection.

The Club Manager must not engage in spamming or other intrusive techniques to solicit Members. Each Club Manager is solely responsible for the content of emails sent by him.

Club Managers are not permitted to charge Members a fee for joining a Club.

make your Club Manager your first point of contact for all queries, concerns and disputes relating to your Club;

immediately advise us of any suspected fraud, chip-dumping, collusion, money laundering or other behavior which is illegal or is prohibited by us (as specified in this Agreement, the End User License Agreement, or otherwise on or via the Site) of which you become aware in relation to your Club; and

not act in any manner which in our opinion brings or is likely to bring PokerStars or any of its group companies into disrepute or is materially adverse to the interests of PokerStars or any of its group companies.

To the extent that you invite other people to join your Club, as a Member you must not engage in spamming or other intrusive techniques to solicit Members, including but not limited to unsolicited advertising within other Clubs. Each Member is solely responsible for the content of emails sent by him.

5. AFFILIATES

If you are party to an Affiliate Agreement, you are bound by the following terms and conditions with respect to your use of Home Games (capitalized terms used in this Clause 5 and not otherwise defined in this Agreement shall have the meaning given to them in the Affiliate Agreement):

You are hereby granted the right to market and promote Home Games by placing the Marketing Codes and/or Links on your Website as part of the marketing and promotion of the Site subject to your adherence to the most up to date version of the Affiliate Agreement. Any Club created, as a result of unauthorized marketing and promotion carried out by you, may be immediately closed by PokerStars.

You are permitted to invite your Website users, including via email communication, to become a Club Manager and to include in such invitation your Marketing Code and/or Link HOWEVER it is strictly prohibited for any third party, including, without limitation, users of your Website and any Club Manager or any Member, to invite potential Members to a Club by use of the Link and/or the Marketing Code supplied to you pursuant to the Affiliate Agreement.

You are strictly prohibited from including any Marketing Code and/or Link supplied to you pursuant to the Affiliate Agreement, or any inducement whatsoever, in any invitation sent by you to any third party, including, without limitation, your Website users, to become a Member of a Club established by you.

You are prohibited from requesting any third party including, without limitation, users of your Website to invite potential Members to a Club by use of the Link and/or the Marketing Code supplied to you pursuant to the Affiliate Agreement.

You are prohibited from offering or providing (or procuring that any third party offers or provides) any incentive in any form whatsoever (explicit or implicit, financial or otherwise) via email, Website publication or via any other media (online or offline) to any third party through your use of Home Games including the sharing by you of any Commission earned by you through your use of Home Games pursuant to the terms of this Agreement.

You are prohibited from using Home Games in any way which is an abuse of the product (including using it in order to increase Commission or Fees otherwise payable to you).

In the event that you are found to have breached this Clause 5 or to be taking any action in order to circumvent the prohibitions contained herein, we reserve right to take any action we deem fit including, the closing of any relevant Club and/or the termination of the Affiliate Agreement, in our sole discretion.

Your right to use Home Games as granted by this Clause 5 is revocable by PokerStars at any time in its sole discretion and subject to any further conditions and/or limitations that PokerStars may from time to time stipulate in its sole discretion, such as, but not limited to, a limitation on the number or percentage of Members linked to you via a Tracker in any Club.

6. ADVERTISING

You shall not use Home Games to promote any service or product of any party except PokerStars or its group companies (for example by linking to the websites of third parties or displaying the advertising of third parties), or in any way encourage Members to play online poker on the websites of PokerStars competitors.

You are not permitted to post links on or otherwise link from the Site or any part of it (including those parts of the Site connected with your Club) to any third party website that promotes a competitor of PokerStars, suggests an association, approval or endorsement of the Club on the part of PokerStars, or violates any term of this Agreement or the End User Licence Agreement.

You may link to the Site from any website that is owned by you, or in an email sent by you, provided that (i) you do so in a way which is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, and (ii) you do not suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists. Your right to link pursuant to this Clause 6.3 cannot be sub-licensed, assigned or otherwise transferred by you. We reserve the right to withdraw this right to link at any time.

7. FINANCIAL GAIN

Home Games is intended solely for your personal entertainment (whether you use it as a Club Manager or Member) and must not in any way be used to create any financial gain or other pecuniary advantage to you or to any other User of Home Games. Prohibited conduct in connection with use of Home Games includes (but is not limited to) the following:

setting up an escrow account or any other method, scheme or system, whether online or offline, in order to distribute funds to any person based on the results of any Home Games ring game or tournament;

charging or receiving from any Member a fee for joining the Club; or

without derogating from Clauses 6.1 or 6.2, earning money or gaining any other form of remuneration from advertising revenue.

8. PRIVACY AND IDENTITY

You acknowledge and accept that a HG Game is likely to include players who know each other, and some or all of those players may be playing that HG Game from the same physical location. By your acceptance of this Agreement, you confirm and agree that it is legal for you to participate in Home Games in your jurisdiction.

Your PokerStars player account User ID will also be your Club Manager or Member identifier, and will be displayed to the Club Manager and Members in the Home Games lobby, Club lobby and (if the Club Manager opts-in for inclusion in directories) public directories of Clubs. Thus, people who know you through Home Games and/or your Club will also know the identity of your PokerStars player account User ID. If you do not agree to this, you must not use Home Games. Users are not permitted to have more than one, unique User ID.

PokerStars may review Club chat logs for any purpose including to check your compliance with this Agreement and the End User License Agreement.

Your personal information may be shared with third parties if we suspect that you are involved in Fraudulent Behavior (as defined in Clause 10.1 below). However, in sharing such information we shall comply with the Privacy Policy.

You agree to accept emails from us relating to your Club activities, including schedules for HG Games, results and standings. You may opt out from receiving such emails at any time on a Club-by-Club basis. Please note that, unless you opt out from a particular Club’s emails, you will receive these emails even if you have opted out of receiving promotional or other emails in relation to the Site.

9. SYSTEM MAINTENANCE

PokerStars may from time to time suspend Home Games in order to perform necessary maintenance (or for any other reason permitted by the End User License Agreement), although if possible we will give you notice of such suspension. In the event of such suspension, it may be necessary to cancel scheduled HG Games. The Club Manager has no responsibility for any such suspension.

If you are a Member, you acknowledge that the suspension described in Clause 9.1 is beyond the Club Manager’s control. Notwithstanding this, if you have any queries about suspension you should refer to your Club Manager in the first instance.

If you are a Club Manager, you agree to take prime responsibility for dealing with Member queries relating to any suspension described in Clause 9.1.

You may unregister from an HG Tournament any time up until two minutes before its scheduled start time. You will forfeit your buy-in if you fail to play an agreed HG Tournament without unregistering in time, and PokerStars will not refund you.

10. FRAUDULENT BEHAVIOUR

PokerStars allows you to use Home Games on the basis that you will not commit any fraud or dishonesty. You agree that you will not commit, or procure, encourage, assist or support the committal of, any fraud or dishonesty or other behavior which is illegal or prohibited by us (as specified in this Agreement, the End User License Agreement, or otherwise on or via the Site) in relation to a Club or the use of Home Games (“Fraudulent Behavior”).

PokerStars takes Fraudulent Behavior extremely seriously. In addition to any other rights or remedies PokerStars may have under this Agreement, the End User License Agreement, at law or otherwise, any User found to be involved in Fraudulent Behavior may be reported to the relevant authorities.

The Club Manager must reasonably monitor the activities of his Club for evidence of Fraudulent Behavior, and report to Support any known or suspected Fraudulent Behavior in accordance with the provisions of Clause 3.3 (i).

Without limiting Clause 10.3, each Member must be alert to evidence of Fraudulent Behavior relating to his Club and must report to Support any known or suspected Fraudulent Behavior in accordance with the provisions of Clause 4.1 (f).

11. SUSPENSION AND BREACH

In the event that we believe you may be in breach of any provision of this Agreement or the End User License Agreement, or for any other justifiable reason, PokerStars reserves the right (without prejudice to its other rights or remedies under this Agreement, the End User License Agreement, at law or otherwise) to immediately:

suspend or prevent your access to the Site or any part of it, including without limitation any Club of which you are a Club Manager or Member or Home Games in general;

suspend or cancel any HG Game or any other activity relating to a Club;

suspend the operation of a Club; and/or

close a Club.

In the event that you are found to be in breach of any provision of this Agreement or the End User License Agreement, PokerStars reserves the right (without prejudice to its other rights or remedies under this Agreement, the End User License Agreement, at law or otherwise) to immediately:

terminate this Agreement;

suspend or permanently prevent your access to the Site or any part of it, including without limitation any Club of which you are a Club Manager or Member or Home Games in general;

suspend or cancel any HG Game or any other activity relating to a Club;

suspend the operation of or permanently close a Club;

seize all monies held in your User account;

terminate your User account;

take legal action against you; and/or

take any other action PokerStars sees fit.

12. LIABILITY AND INDEMNITY

You agree to fully indemnify, defend and hold harmless PokerStars, its group companies and its shareholders, directors and employees from and against all claims, demands, liabilities, damages, losses, costs and expenses, including legal fees and any other charges whatsoever, howsoever caused, that may arise as a result of:

your breach or alleged breach of this Agreement, in whole or in part;

in connection with Home Games, any violation or infringement or alleged violation or infringement by you of any law or any third party rights;

any Fraudulent Behavior or alleged Fraudulent Behavior with which you were involved in connection with Home Games; and

use by you of Home Games or use by any other person accessing Home Games using your Login Credentials, whether or not with your authorization.

Under no circumstances, including negligence, shall PokerStars be liable for any special, incidental, direct, indirect or consequential damages whatsoever (including damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of or in connection with this Agreement, even if PokerStars had prior knowledge of the possibility of such damages or if such losses were reasonably foreseeable.

Nothing in this Agreement shall limit a party’s liability for personal injury or death caused by their negligence or for theft or fraud by that party.

13. ORDER OF PRECEDENCE

In relation to your use of Home Games, to the extent that there is any conflict between the provisions of Clauses 6 and 7 of this Agreement and your Affiliate Agreement, your Affiliate Agreement shall take precedence to the extent of such conflict.

14. AMENDMENT

PokerStars reserves the right to update or modify this Agreement or any part thereof at any time without notice and you will be bound by such amended Agreement 14 days after it was posted at the Site. Therefore, we encourage you to visit the Site regularly and check the terms and conditions contained in the version of the Agreement in force at such time. Your continued use of the Site shall be deemed to attest to your agreement to any amendments to the Agreement.

15. GOVERNING LAW

This Agreement and any matters relating hereto shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the Isle of Man. You irrevocably agree that, subject as provided below, the courts of the Isle of Man shall have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning the Agreement and any matter arising therefrom and irrevocably waive any right that you may have to object to an action being brought in those courts, or to claim that the action has been brought in an inconvenient forum, or that those courts do not have jurisdiction. Nothing in this clause shall limit the right of PokerStars to take proceedings against you in any other court of competent jurisdiction, nor shall the taking of proceedings in any one or more jurisdictions preclude the taking of proceedings in any other jurisdictions, whether concurrently or not, to the extent permitted by the law of such other jurisdiction.

16. SEVERABILITY

If a provision of this Agreement is or becomes illegal, invalid or unenforceable in any jurisdiction, that shall not affect the validity or enforceability in that jurisdiction of any other provision hereof or the validity or enforceability in other jurisdictions of that or any other provision hereof. If any provision is void but would be valid if some part of the provision were deleted or amended, the provision in question shall apply with such modification as may be necessary to make it valid.

17. ASSIGNMENT

PokerStars reserves the right to assign this Agreement, in whole or in part, at any time without notice. You may not assign any of your rights or obligations under this Agreement.

18. MISCELLANEOUS

No waiver (express or implied) by PokerStars of any breach of any provision of this Agreement (including the failure of PokerStars to require strict and literal performance of or compliance with any provision of this Agreement) shall in any way be construed as a waiver of any subsequent breach of such provision or of any breach of any other provision of this Agreement.

Except for PokerStars’ group companies, nothing in this Agreement shall create or confer any rights or other benefits in favor of any person who is not party to this Agreement (including any Club Manager or Member of your Club other than you).

Nothing in this Agreement shall create or be deemed to create an employment, partnership, agency, trust arrangement, fiduciary relationship or joint venture between you and us.

This Agreement and the documents referred to in it constitute the entire understanding and agreement between you and us regarding Home Games and supersede any prior agreement, understanding, or arrangement between you and us relating to Home Games.

You must provide full and truthful information in respect of all details and information requested by PokerStars in connection with your use of Home Games and, if you are a Club Manager, your Club’s Members’ use of Home Games, subject at all times to the terms of the Privacy Policy.

The English language version of this Agreement shall be the prevailing version in the event of any discrepancy between any translated versions of this Agreement.